


Isolation: Reprise

by TheOriginalSilvertongue



Series: Isolation in Asgard [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: AO3 FB Challenge, Asgard, Gen, Post-Thor: The Dark World, Sifki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 07:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18069329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOriginalSilvertongue/pseuds/TheOriginalSilvertongue
Summary: Lady Sif knows Loki better than anyone else in Asgard. That makes her dangerous as Loki remains upon the throne disguised as Odin.





	Isolation: Reprise

**Author's Note:**

> Some reading music for this piece: [ Enjoy The Silence by KI Theory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_1-oylPHjs)

Warriors were taught to either ignore their grief or to channel it into vengeance. Everyone who had ever trained in Asgard with so much as a stick had that drilled into them. Grief was a luxury, an indulgence that a warrior could not afford. Those who died the glorious death were not to be mourned but celebrated for their deeds would live on and their names never forgotten. They would dwell in the haven of Valhalla as the chosen of the gods. 

Or so they'd all been told. Loki wasn't convinced.

What Loki suffered in grief, Sif bore in duplicate. He admired her for that, so steadfast in her dedication, not allowing anyone to see so much as a sparkle of a tear in her eye. As Loki had lost Frigga, so had the Lady Sif. With Thor’s departure, they both mourned his loss. Where Loki alone grieved for Odin, Sif did also for her brother, Heimdall whom Loki had driven to flee from his post as Asgard’s Gatekeeper rather than face charges of treason. Loki didn’t blame him, and Heimdall’s disappearance suited Loki just as well as imprisoning him would have. Heimdall would have to be able to see Loki’s every move as Odin. The charade could not be dropped even for a moment without risking being caught. Loki could shield himself from Heimdall’s gaze if necessary, but the Allfather’s disappearance from Asgard would be marked. Heimdall only knew one other who could hide himself from the gaze that revealed trillions of souls in the Nine Realms: Loki. It would be far too obvious.

Which left Loki trapped more firmly than Asgard’s dungeons ever had managed. Perhaps some of Odin’s quirks could be explained by the loss of his wife and sons but the excuse could not be made forever. Loki would have to perfect his impersonation of the Allfather or rid Asgard of any who knew him too well, any who might catch on to his ruse. 

Heimdall had just been the start. Eir, close friend of his mother’s and healer to both him and Thor since they were children, Loki dispatched to a distant garrison which suffered from a lack of healers. Fandral was sent to join Hogun in Vanaheim, where rebuilding was still taking place. Volstagg received a promotion to a training post within the Einherjar which kept him very busy away from the palace. With a wife and children, Volstagg was the least likely to be too observant and see things Loki did not wish to be seen. Fandral knew him too well, and Hogun’s taciturn nature belied a keen eye for detail and disturbance. He saw far more than he said, and Loki could not risk it. It was better that they remained away.

This left only brave Sif. It hadn’t been out of any sense of mercy that Loki left her summons until last; it was selfishness. He was about to take away from Sif the last thing she still had. She already might never forgive him. It would also be his last close link to his past and his identity left in Asgard. It had to be done but that didn’t make the doing any more tolerable. It was sentiment, especially after having Thor torn away so abruptly, that Loki would cling so tightly to this final thread.

He knew she mourned them all. He’d seen her cry, alone in private after all her efforts to exhaust herself with drills and sparring failed to allow her to drop like a corpse into her bed until morning. He’d seen her briefly wear some of the trinkets he’d given her over the years, little tokens of their time together, always something that could be hidden in plain sight. She drank too much, fought too much. She was angry, and Loki knew exactly why: it was easier to be angry than it was to hurt. He tried it himself sometimes with varying degrees of success. Loki was angry with Odin, Thor, the dark elves, but mostly with himself. It didn’t take the Norns themselves to point out how his actions had brought them all to this point. It was those same actions that still drove him now.

While binding and banishing Odin had been an act of passion, done without forethought, Loki thought long and hard about how best to make use of his current position. As Odin, Loki had access to three known Infinity Gems, possibly four. There were prophecies and theories that the Convergence of the Nine Realms which had just passed rippled outward and could be linked to rare natural phenomenon on distant planets that would reveal the location of another of the stones. Loki had only the ancient name of the place and no known way to connect it to what the planet might be called now: _Mikill._ Also as Odin, Loki had access to all of Asgard’s libraries, even the Allfather’s private ones. It was within those tomes Loki intended to research to learn more about these prophecies, and it was Odin’s private library that had given Loki the idea for his real goal. He’d told Thor that Odin’s dark magic knowledge had been destroyed, but Loki lied. While reviewing the materials gathered by the Allfather over centuries, an idea had come to Loki. An idea that could only be pursued safely in this guise, in Asgard. 

Thanos was coming. Loki never forgot that; how could he?

_If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us,_  
_there will be no realm, no barren moon,_  
_no crevice where He can’t find you._

_You think you know pain?  
He will make you long for something as sweet as pain!_

The Other’s words still hissed in Loki’s ear from regular nightmares, his clammy fingers against Loki’s skin waking him with a start. At times, Loki wondered if they were still in his head. He did not doubt the truth of the promise. It had been a calculated risk breaking from the clutches of the mad Titan. Loki’s intention had been to take the Tesseract and the Mind Gem and run. With the power of those two stones, he’d stood some chance of keeping ahead of his doom until a better plan presented itself. But he’d lost the Mind Gem within the Chitauri scepter and the only way to reclaim the Tesseract was to return to Asgard with it. Now, Loki had both it and The Aether within the vault. The scepter remained on Earth, to whom Odin was not an enemy.

Now, instead of running, Loki was in a position to fortify himself. He was in a position to make contingency plans. With the forbidden knowledge from Odin’s supposedly destroyed library, Loki would combine what he could learn from the stones. He would use their power to enhance his own, allowing him to complete magic usually beyond his ability just as the Tesseract had helped him to bring himself halfway across the universe. If his fate was inevitable, at least Loki could see it coming. Even the inevitable could be subverted if one was determined enough. He had to believe that.

It would require relentless focus. Loki didn’t know how long he had until Thanos intended to make good on his threats. The Titan had been content to send out others to do his bidding thus far, those he called ‘Children of Thanos’. Loki hated the term, hated how the others he’d met wore it like a badge of honor. Thanos was no god; he did not deserve the reverence they bestowed upon him. He took malleable things and twisted them into the shape of his liking, and Loki hated him for it. 

Loki also hated himself for what he was about to do to Sif but there was no alternative. Sif would have to continue to think him dead now so that Loki could lay his trap. Her heartbreak and struggle had nothing to do with his decision, Loki told himself. It wasn’t that he couldn’t bear seeing it day after day. It wasn’t cowardice; it was strategic. 

His heart told him he was a liar, just like when Loki tried to tell himself it was good that Thor was gone, that it left Loki free to do as he pleased upon the throne of Asgard. Lies, just like when Loki told himself he didn’t miss his father or care for Odin’s regard any longer. He was a liar. 

And so Loki did what he did best when he finally called Sif before him: he lied. It was his wish, he said as Odin, that Sif step in where Thor had disappointed the Nine Realms. It was Midgard that Thor had declared under his protection, so it was to Midgard that Loki-as-Odin dispatched the last of their close friends and trusted comrades. It was to Midgard that Loki sent his secret beloved of centuries, she who mourned the loss of him before they could mend the rift he’d caused between them. At night, alone when Sif allowed herself those few tears and a few words, Loki knew she didn’t believe he would be allowed within the golden halls of Valhalla any more than he believed it.

There was little solace he could give her. Or himself. Pity was for the weak.

“Are you certain, my king?” she’d asked him, expression concerned, perhaps detecting a trace of reluctance in his voice. 

“You would question my decisions now as you did Loki’s when he was king?” Odin snapped. It was a cruel barb, designed to pierce deep and fester. Loki meant to drive her away, make her glad to leave Asgard. It was cold comfort, and Loki knew it. She deserved so much better.

“No, my king!” Sif countered quickly, stung by the reminder. “I will depart immediately and find these allies of Asgard, Thor’s friends. I will aid them as you wish.”

“Look for the ones who call themselves SHIELD.” They would accept Sif’s presence, accord her the respect she deserved. Keep her safe in what ways they could. She would find friends among them. There was one more small balm Loki could offer Sif. He fixed her with Odin’s single eye and forced the old man’s face into the slightest semblance of a smile. 

“You do your father proud, my child. Go with that blessing.” The king finished with a nod of dismissal. Odin had known Sif’s father, of course, had fought alongside him, dined with him at feasts. Sif, Loki, and Thor had been inseparable as children. 

How had they come to this? Loki let out a sigh and leaned back on the throne.

“Thank you, Allfather.” Sif’s voice was tight, her face a rigid mask. She rose, fist still over her heart, bowed, and made a hasty exit from his presence. Loki pretended he hadn’t heard the choked noise she’d made at his final words.

_Let that be a parting gift for now, my lady,_ Loki thought bitterly as the familiar sounds of her footsteps and the soft clank of her armor retreated out of earshot. 

**Author's Note:**

> Accompanying artwork:
> 
> Quote from The Other from "The Avengers" film, 2012.
> 
> Concrit/feedback/comments welcome.


End file.
